title: Progressive resistance training for community-dwelling women aged 90 or older; a single-subject experimental design.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the effect and feasibility of a 12-week programme of progressive resistance exercise on a group of nonagenarian (≥90 years) community-dwelling women.
  
  
  METHODS
  An A-B single-subject experimental design was applied. Visual analyses were used for estimating the effect of the intervention. Outcome measurements were: Timed Up and Go (TUG), comfortable walking speed and 30-s chair stands. The programme comprised four exercises, following the principle of overload, aiming at improving strength in the main muscle groups. Feasibility of the progressive resistance intervention was assessed by recording the recruitment of participants, adherence to the intervention and adverse events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-seven women were invited; eight women aged 90 and above agreed to participate and six completed the study. They suffered from one to 10 chronic medical conditions. All improved their performance in the TUG test. Five of the six participants achieved a higher walking speed (11-59%) and four of them improved on the 30-s chair-stand test with five to 10 stands. No major adverse events were reported.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Progressive resistance training was a safe and efficient method to enhance mobility and increase lower body strength in this heterogeneous group of nonagenarian community-dwelling women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Progressive resistance (PRT) training was found to be a safe and efficient method to enhance mobility and increase lower body strength in a group of community-dwelling women 90+. Participants with the poorest initial functional performance had great benefits, and the improvements appeared already after a few weeks of PRT. PRT might be useful in the rehabilitation field and could be implemented in facilities such as day care and senior centres frequented by very old persons with mobility limitations.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences , Oslo , Norway .
authors.forename: Gro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Idland
authors.forename: Hilde
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sylliaas
authors.forename: Anne Marit
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mengshoel
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pettersen
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bergland
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living; D051346:Mobility Limitation; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D009664:Norway; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D055070:Resistance Training / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Mobility; muscle strength; progressive resistance training; women